SUYL: Favorite Appetizer

I knew I had to share this recipe for "Bang Bang Shrimp" again for Kelly's Show Us Your Life post. This is a copycat recipe of the uber-popular Bonefish Grill appetizer and it is also one of the top searches on this blog.


For the recipe, click HERE.

Enjoy and have a great weekend everyone!!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

My daughter has a typical picky preschooler palette but my six year old is the complete opposite. He is quite adventures with foods. He's been know to order salmon instead of chicken fingers at restaurants, enthusiastically tries all ethnic foods and recently fell in love with spicy Buffalo wings.

He loved when I made these for a Super Bowl party. Of course, I can't make Buffalo wings all the time (plus, cutting apart the wings is not exactly my idea of fun) so I decided to make him this (new) classic Buffalo style dip.


Serve it up with crisp celery, carrots or tortilla chips...your guests will love it!

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded or chopped,cooked chicken
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup Ranch dressing
3/4 cup pepper sauce (such as Frank's Red Hot®)
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp blue cheese crumbles

Directions:

Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly. Serve with crumbled blue cheese on top carrot, celery sticks and tortilla chips.

Source: Adapted from All Recipes.com

Buffalo Wings

I know that this post is a little after the fact but I just have to share it. These are the ultimate, perfect Buffalo wings!! Even if your not going to be making these soon, bookmark this recipe because it is simple, authentic and makes unbelievably good wings!!

My son has recently become obsessed with Buffalo wings and when we got invited to my neighbor's annual Super Bowl party, I quickly volunteered to bring the wings.

I got the instructions and recipe for one of my favorite video food blogs, Food Wishes. Chef John is a genius!!


These wings are oven fried to perfection and then coated in an authentic Buffalo sauce recipe. I served these along with celery, carrot sticks and blue cheese dressing for dipping.

The blue cheese dressing was just a store bought bottled brand (Ken's to be exact) but I did sprinkle in a little bit of fresh blue cheese crumbles because....well, I love my blue cheese crumbly :)


I am not even going to post the recipe here because Chef John's videos are so well done and I think you really need to view them to make these correctly. The video was especially helpful in explaining how to cut apart the wing pieces. I would never have figured it out on my own.

So....
Click HERE for the basic chicken wing recipe and click HERE for the buffalo sauce recipe.

Source: Food Wishes

Brie Bites

With the holidays quickly approaching you might be looking for a quick, easy and tasty appetizer, well look no further...introducing brie bites!

This recipe comes from the blog for the love of cooking and these taste great! However, the best part is that they truly go from freezer/fridge to table in under 10minutes...got to love that :)

Ingredients:
2 packages of mini phyllo shells
8 oz brie cheese, double cream
Raspberry preserves
Apricot preserves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the mini shells on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Carefully cut the rind off of the brie. Cut the brie into 1/2 inch cubes and put one into each shell. Top each brie bite with either apricot or raspberry preserves. Bake in the oven for 6-7 minutes or until the brie has melted and the phyllo shells are golden brown. Enjoy.

Garlic Shrimp Bruschetta

I found the recipe in Woman's Day and couldn't wait to try it.

It's easy to make, tastes delish and looks elegant. It's perfect for the upcoming holidays. The best part is that you can prepare the toasted bread and the tomato mixture 2 hours before serving.

Ingredients:
Makes 24

24 thin slices French bread
Olive oil cooking spray
1 cup diced plum tomatoes
1 Tbsp olive oil
3⁄4 tsp minced garlic
1⁄4 tsp each salt and pepper
24 medium shrimp
1⁄4 cup pesto
Garnish: small basil leaves (I didn't have any on hand :( )

Heat broiler. Place bread on baking sheet; coat with cooking spray. Broil 2 to 3 minutes, turning once, until lightly toasted.
Put tomatoes, 1 tsp of the oil, 1⁄2 tsp of the garlic, and the salt and pepper in a bowl. Toss to coat. Heat remaining 2 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add shrimp and remaining 1⁄4 tsp garlic. Saute 2 minutes or just until shrimp are cooked through. Remove from heat. To assemble, spread each piece of toasted bread with 1⁄2 tsp pesto. Top with about 1⁄2 Tbsp tomato mixture, then one shrimp.

WW POINTS = 1 (for 1 prepared bruschetta slice)